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Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Morgan Butte Lookout

Fremont NF ground cabin; the first house here was moved from Round Pass in 1958 and the R-6 cab went up in 1964. Staffed in summer.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Staffed in summer. Reached on foot from a gate on Road 020, or by the Fremont National Recreation Trail from the north (July 2024 visit).

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Hike from the north on the Fremont National Recreation Trail, or walk up Road 020 from the gate; the 2024 visitor reported both
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabR-6 flat-roofed ground cabin with catwalk (built 1964); hip roof added 1985The design: R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,180 ft (2,189 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Fremont National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.54035, −120.54458
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-morgan-butte

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.6 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1922 EventRound Pass site: first house built thereSource: firetower.org
  2. 1930 Replaced by a new structureRound Pass site: 1922 house replaced by a 14 by 14 foot L-4 lookout houseSource: firetower.org
  3. No record between 1930 and 1958
  4. 1958 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1958 EventFirelookout.com dates the R-6 cab to 1958; the register, Forest Lookouts and Cheryl Hill date it to 1964Source: firelookout.com
  6. 1958 MovedRound Pass L-4 house moved to Morgan Butte by low-boy trailer; lookout duties transferred; first structure on the butteSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1964 BuiltCurrent R-6 flat-roofed ground cabin with catwalkSources: nhlr.org, cherylhill.net, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1964 and 1985
  9. 1985 AlteredRehabbed; hip roof addedSources: firelookout.com, nhlr.org
  10. No record between 1985 and 2003
  11. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 31, 2003; nominated by Howard VerschoorSource: nhlr.org
  12. No record between 2003 and 2020
  13. 2020 FireBrattain Fire: a staffer said he had to evacuate the lookout in 2020; sources report no damageSource: cherylhill.net
  14. 2024 StaffedSummer staffing; the staffer met in July 2024 was on his fourth seasonSource: cherylhill.net
  15. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Morgan Butte is a lookout on the Fremont National Forest, about 26 miles north-northwest of Lakeview, in Lake County.1,2 The site did not become a lookout until 1958.3 The Round Pass site had first held a house built in 1922, which was replaced in 1930 by a 14-by-14-foot L-4 house.4 The house moved in 1958 was that L-4 house, carried by low-boy trailer to the butte that spring.4,2 The lookout duties moved with it, and the register says the Round Pass site then became an OMNI radar site.5,2

One 2024 visitor says the earlier lookout actually stood on Round Mountain rather than at the pass.3 The Round Pass record gives the pass site's elevation as 7,462 feet.4

The current cab went up in 1964 as an R-6 flat-roofed ground cabin with a catwalk.2,5,3 The register dates a 1985 rehab that put a hip roof on the cab.2 One site page dates the R-6 cab to 1958 instead, which the other sources do not support.1

The lookout is staffed through the summer.1,3 A staffer the visitor met in July 2024 was on his fourth season there, and said he had to evacuate in 2020 when the Brattain Fire broke out.3 The register listed the site on March 31, 2003.2

On that July 2024 visit, the writer hiked up from the north on the Fremont National Recreation Trail, then drove Road 020 to a gate.3 From the gate one can also walk the road up to the lookout.3 Check with the Fremont National Forest about summer staffing and road conditions before you go.

  1. Morgan Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, Rex's Forest Fire Lookout Page (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/or/morganbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Morgan Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, nhlr.org, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/morgan-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Morgan Butte, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2024/07/04/morgan-butte/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Round Pass Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, firetower.org, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/round-pass-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Morgan Butte, Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/morgan-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Morgan Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Morgan Butte L.O.
Morgan Butte L.OPhoto: Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1958
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1958
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1964

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, photos, links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: register numbers, links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, access, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

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